In this issue: Remote work means youâre never off work / Trump presidency was good for WaPo business / Facebook news links get quirky / WSJ goes all-in on cat pictures / Snack food industry plans Ozempic strategy / Disney signs TikTok brand safety deal / Internet wires vs ocean.
Welcome to Context Collapse, the worldâs best comms newsletter. Iâm Neal Ungerleider. I run Ungerleider Works and used to work as a reporter for Fast Company, write op-eds for the LA Times, and work as a senior copywriter for R/GA. This newsletter helps readers navigate the weird new world of media and gleefully ignores all the conventional wisdom about journalism, public relations, marketing, and advertising.
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-Neal
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âIt is useful to be able to work from anywhere, to answer work emails while queueing at the supermarket, to tick off a couple of tasks while on the train, or to write reports and attend meetings during a pandemic lockdown. But convenience always breeds temptation. Soon enough, we are not only working during dead time, but while we should be relaxing, paying attention to our loved ones or having fun.
Workers win as well as lose from this. Your employer may be tempting you to answer emails while cooking for your family or demanding that you perform midnight research for your boss instead of joining your partner between the sheets. But what goes around comes around. In retaliation, you can goof off at your desk by playing a video game, gazing blankly at TikTok, or shopping online.â
âThe Post, like other news organizations, saw a drop-off in subscribers after former President Donald J. Trump left office. Mr. Ryan was criticized for what some in the company saw as a stultified business culture and frequently clashed with newsroom leaders. He also presided over an exodus of talent in the past two years, including top-tier executives and high-profile journalists.
Ms. Stonesifer, a longtime friend of Mr. Bezos, agreed to step in as an interim leader after Mr. Ryan departed this year.â
âAccording to Newswhip, seven of the top 10 most interacted with ânewsâ articles on Facebook in September â as in third-party links to âpublishersâ â all came from one domain: catholicfundamentalism.com. The top story from this exciting new digital publisher was titled, âDo Catholics find âLifeâ by being pleasing to God? The Psalms tell us! #17.â and it has around 400,000 total interactions and around 2,500 shares. Weirdly enough, just like the potato meme that people are praying to, the comments underneath the post are, also, just people writing âamenâ over and over again. The only actual news stories in the top 10 last month, aside from the aforementioned Jimmy Buffet obit, was a story about Metaâs Messenger app getting the notes feature, which was written by Filipino news outlet ABS-CBN, and a story from Legit about Nigerian popstar Davido giving a TikTok user a new iPhone 14 Pro Max.â
âHeadlines and photo selection needed to be livened up, she said. An example of this change in action: A much-talked-about front page on Aug. 8 that featured a large photo at the top of an astonished-looking cat, tied to International Cat Day. The eye-catching photo represented a departure from the editorial sensibility under previous editors. Ms. Tucker told the newsroom she wanted The Journal to become âan audience-first publication for people who mean business,â enticing readers to come back more often to its digital products by focusing on exclusive stories, rather than commodity news.â
âBig food companies and investors are watching as Ozempic and other similar weight-loss drugs flow to millions of people, upending Americaâs diet industry and raising new questions about how consumers will eat. Executives at food manufacturers from Campbell Soup to Conagra Brands said they are fielding questions from investors about the drugsâ potential impact, as internal teams start to assess consumer behavior and brainstorm ways to respond.â
âTikTok has landed Disney as its latest big-name publishing partner for its premium ad product, Pulse Premiere, announced earlier this year. The company will join other large publishers, including NBCU, CondĂ© Nast, DotDash Meredith, BuzzFeed and more, which offer brand-safe videos for marketers to place their ads around. The new deal will also see TikTok offering Disney a dedicated destination within the video app where Disney fans can watch videos from Disneyâs brands, create their own with Disneyâs music and special effects, play Disney-themed trivia, and collect âCharacter Cardsâ of their favorite players.â
Internet Vs Ocean: the essential wires we never think about.